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The preliminary inquiry into what one police investigator has called the “largest corruption fraud in Canadian history” began in a Montreal courtroom on Monday with the appearance of three former SNC-Lavalin executives and two ex-administrators of the McGill University Health Centre. All are charged with fraud, among other crimes, arising from the awarding of a […]

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Among the assets that have frozen (or are to be) are luxury properties in the Caribbean with colourful names like Absolutely Bushed and Lookout Point as well as condos purchased for Arthur Porter's daughters in Florida and Michigan, according to police affidavits.

We’re going back down! The temperature roller-coaster we’ve been on this week still isn’t over. Environment Canada predicts light snow ending early this afternoon with temperature hovering around zero. The air will dip to -7C tonight and the night will remain cloudy. Commute There doesn’t seem to be anything unusual on the roads this morning. If […]

The arrest of a former SNC-Lavalin vice-president Wednesday brings to nine the total number of people to date who face criminal charges arising from the $1.3-billion contract to build the superhospital of the McGill University Health Centre.

After spending nearly two weeks examining alleged political interference in provincial roadwork contracts, the Charbonneau Commission abruptly switched gears Thursday — turning its attention to what experts say is the worst example of corruption in Quebec’s recent history.

The former head of the McGill University Health Centre was a calculating and persuasive businessman who managed to cheat the system using sheer guts and guile, said the latest witness at the Charbonneau Commission on Tuesday.

The hunger for justice is enormous. Quebecers — rightly appalled at the conduct of engineering and construction firms that colluded to defraud the taxpayer — want someone to pay. But in the rush to judge and condemn, maybe we’re going a little too far.

Former SNC-Lavalin executive Riahd Ben Aissa had a “friendly” relationship with Saadi Gadhafi, offering him and other Libyan officials $160 million in bribes to secure lucrative contracts for the Montreal-based engineering firm, an RCMP search warrant alleges. The RCMP says Ben Aissa and fellow SNC executive Stéphane Roy played an integral role in trying to extract the son of deposed Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi from Libya as the country descended into revolution in 2011.

Quebec’s anti-corruption squad marked its second birthday with a trip to Montreal city hall. After months of raids and arrests in suburban Mascouche, St-Rémi and Laval, at engineering and construction firms such as SNC-Lavalin and Louisbourg, the Unité permanente anticorruption (UPAC) was ready to flex some muscle in Quebec’s biggest city.

Former MUHC planning director Yanaï Elbaz was arraigned Thursday on 13 charges of fraud, accepting bribes, money laundering and breach of trust in relation to the awarding of the $1.3-billion contract to build the McGill superhospital to SNC-Lavalin, and was promptly released on a $150,000 bond.

Five people were named Wednesday in arrest warrants targeting executives from the MUHC and engineering firm SNC-Lavalin, which won the lucrative contract to design and oversee construction of Montreal's $1.3-billion superhospital.